I'd been going to the same dentist for probably a decade. He was my neighbor before he was my dentist, so we were friends. I didn't feel that I was taking very good care of my teeth over the past five years, but he never really said I had anything to worry about. There were a few small issues he'd fix over the years, but overall he never told me there was anything to worry about.

Well, I started looking at my teeth myself in a little more detail and started to disagree. I decided to head over to a different dentist to get another opinion.

They told me I have 11 cavities (some are very small, though), that I nearly have gum disease, that I have some bad infections, and they immediately got me using prescription toothpaste and mouth wash. As it happens the cavities are individually rather small, so I can't feel them at all, and they aren't really visible, not even with x-rays, due to the orientations of the cavities.

I nearly shit my pants. Obviously any dental health problems I have are my own fault, but I feel very misled. I regularly went to the dentist for a decade. There's no way *all* of that just magically appeared since my last visit to the dentist, which was fairly recent, actually.

So I'm just writing this as a friendly warning. It might be worthwhile occasionally getting a second opinion on things like your teeth, if you're worried at all.

As it happens the cavities are individually rather small, so I can't feel them at all, and they aren't really visible, not even with x-rays, due to the orientations of the cavities.

How did they find them?

Seriously. Sounds like the second dentist you went to is a bit shady."Oh, uh, you have cavities. 12 of them. They're invisible though, even to x-rays... due to their... orientation. And um, you can't feel them either. Fairies put them there. Also you have gum disease. And aids. That'd be $1200.00, after your insurance covers the other bazillion dollars. You need to use prescription toothpaste from now on, that I get a kickback for recommending. Because... uh, toothpaste heals cavitities! Or something."

But who knows? Get a third opinion. An online message board about programming doesn't count.

As it happens the cavities are individually rather small, so I can't feel them at all, and they aren't really visible, not even with x-rays, due to the orientations of the cavities.

How did they find them?

My description wasn't good. They *are* visible with x-rays, but their depth can't be judged due to orientation. This only applies to some of them. They only took two quick and cheap x-rays from the sides, so it's fairly easy to visualize and see that this explanation is logical.

Did you look at the xrays yourself? Maybe you should get a 3rd opinion just in case your friend wasn't as bad a dentist as you thought.

No, I didn't see the x-rays myself.

Should I legitimately be worried about being ripped off? The second dentist was recommended to me by a friend and has had his private practice here for years. Well, I'm not sure what to think. The first dentist is getting old, he's planning on retiring, and he doesn't seem like he cares anymore. He was even canceling some of my appointments--at least twice he canceled. The second dentist definitely did not come off as shady.

It'scertainly a possibility but you should check into it a little more.

I've heard of it before, and you'll find plenty of anecdotes with similar scams or upsells in a Google search. There was a Reader's Digest "sting" way back that had some pretty poor results for honesty, but articles like that are usually sensationalized.

Although it's annoying not knowing who to trust, you may as well get another opinion. Wouldn't you rather pay the checkup fee again and know for sure, than pay more for unnecessary work?

I had a dentist that I did not like for last year. I think he did a bad job filing a cavity and he did all the work himself (so nobody is there to counter his opinion).

1.) Make sure you get a dentist that has dental assistants.

2.) You did say you don't feel you take very good care of your teeth. So 11 cavities might not be bad. You can bring that up if you go back and describe that your other dentist said you were in good shape and that you want to see the x-rays to verify.

If getting a 3rd opinion, I would call a 3rd place and describe this exact situation and just ask them to look for a small fee maybe. I mean they are going to know if your gums look bad and of an infection in a minute.

Should I legitimately be worried about being ripped off? The second dentist was recommended to me by a friend and has had his private practice here for years. Well, I'm not sure what to think. The first dentist is getting old, he's planning on retiring, and he doesn't seem like he cares anymore. He was even canceling some of my appointments--at least twice he canceled. The second dentist definitely did not come off as shady.

I'm not insinuating he is ripping you off (which he may be), but everyone has different personalities. He may see a microscopic dot on your xray and freak out that you have a cavity whereas someone else might wait till the next appointment to see what the status is.

Should I legitimately be worried about being ripped off? The second dentist was recommended to me by a friend and has had his private practice here for years. Well, I'm not sure what to think. The first dentist is getting old, he's planning on retiring, and he doesn't seem like he cares anymore. He was even canceling some of my appointments--at least twice he canceled. The second dentist definitely did not come off as shady.

IMO yes. In all honesty, and in my experience, dentists tend to be incompetent and desirous of giving you more treatment than is necessary in order to make more money. I've even known them to damage people's teeth and give bad advice so that they can prescribe more treatment in the future. Also I've known them to give "oh you definately need lots of treatment" statements to people they thought were on a private healthcare scheme and then on finding out that they were on public healthcare change to a "oh your teeth are fine, you don't need treatment" statement. Given you were having no problems with your teeth before and and given your previous dentist was obviously not trying to rip you off I'd be more inclined to trust the previous dentist.

IMO yes. In all honesty, and in my experience, dentists tend to be incompetent and desirous of giving you more treatment than is necessary in order to make more money. I've even known them to damage people's teeth and give bad advice so that they can prescribe more treatment in the future. Also I've known them to give "oh you definately need lots of treatment" statements to people they thought were on a private healthcare scheme and then on finding out that they were on public healthcare change to a "oh your teeth are fine, you don't need treatment" statement. Given you were having no problams with your teeth before and and given your previous dentist was obviously not trying to rip you off I'd be more inclined to trust the previous dentist.

This is a problem with the US medical system, not just dentists. They are just a susceptible to malpractice suits as any other doctor, and the US malpractice system favors the patients so much that it is in every doctor's best interest to over treat people lest they get sued and have their license brought into question. More times than not the malpractice suits are brought up by private insurance companies, not the patients, and that is why they tend to over treat insured people, because they are riskier not to treat.

And the dude pointed out earlier that he was worried about his dental health as a non-professional. I'd say that is enough to warrant favoring the latter dentist. Dental health is probably one place where I'd be more inclined to over treat anyway if you can afford it. It's pretty shitty trying to schedule emergency dental surgery on a weekend while also trying to figure out how to eat anything and resist the urge to pull your tooth out of your skull with a pair of needle nose pliers to make the pain stop.

Don't be so scared. It's not so bad. I agree with others however, the 2nd guy is a bit shady. I don't know how much fixing those 11 defects will cost you but if it costs as much as I had to pay here, then you might probably want to consider a volumetric scanning. It can offset you 1000 easily but it's immensely more accurate than X-rays.If your original dentist is going to retire then I agree you are very likely in a bit of a problem. Be aware of dentists even if they just "feel" ok, I am close to having another lawsuit to one of them right now... You are absolutely in the right position to have multiple consultations.

They are just a susceptible to malpractice suits as any other doctor, and the US malpractice system favors the patients so much that it is in every doctor's best interest to over treat people lest they get sued and have their license brought into question. More times than not the malpractice suits are brought up by private insurance companies, not the patients, and that is why they tend to over treat insured people, because they are riskier not to treat.

And the dude pointed out earlier that he was worried about his dental health as a non-professional. I'd say that is enough to warrant favoring the latter dentist. Dental health is probably one place where I'd be more inclined to over treat anyway if you can afford it. It's pretty shitty trying to schedule emergency dental surgery on a weekend while also trying to figure out how to eat anything and resist the urge to pull your tooth out of your skull with a pair of needle nose pliers to make the pain stop.

The worrying thing is though when the dentist is so incompetent or malevolent or a mixture of both that his over treatment actually damages or even seriously damages your teeth. This is not infrequent in the UK. Perhaps it would be less of a problem if lawsuits were not so rare in the UK.

I looked into getting a third opinion but haven't been able to get anything scheduled soon enough, as I am going on a long two-month trip tomorrow in fact. The new dentist was willing to get me in this week, though, so I decided to go in and have them do what they considered most major.

I'm increasingly on the fence over this. I need to get a third opinion and probably will in time when I can. Every time I've went into the new dentits's office they've asked me, sometimes more than once, if I have dental insurance, even though I've filled out numerous forms, answered the question several times, and even went in there a few months ahead of the first appointment and filled out all those forms then as well.

I'm not fond of the way dentist's offices work anymore. I don't like that the dentist himself doesn't give me any advice, only his assistants who do little more than put napkins on my chest and suction saliva out of my mouth. The dental assistants wanted me to buy a toothbrush from them today. I asked them how long these cavities had been there, and one of the assistants said "from the x-rays, probably six months." It's weird that I evidently went years without any cavities, yet in the last six months eleven popped up and she's warning me that "these are the only teeth you'll get." Maybe it's all true and dental health is just far more finicky that I thought. On the other hand, their obsession with insurance makes me think they are trying to schedule every little trick they can. (For the record, I do *not* have dental insurance right now, but given how confused they have been over it, I'm seriously not convinced the dentist himself knows that. The worst part is that during my last visit I didn't even get a chance to talk to him, because by the time he showed up in the room, there was a gas mask on my face and multiple sticks in my mouth.)

I'm just tired of the mixed messages. I'd be inclined to just return to my regular dentist if he wasn't in the process of retiring, but recently he was canceling my appointments almost as often as I was calling to make them, which is one of the factors that led me to consult a new dentist in the first place.

Regardless, I'm going to take very good care of my teeth from now on, so this is not all bad, but it is very confusing.